We're all the heroes of our own stories
by smaragdbird
Summary: We're all the heroes of our own stories slash


Show me a hero and I'll write you a tragedy.

F. Scott Fitzgerald

What he'd never told anyone, was that he'd already met Ames years before. it had been after Rachel, after the psych ward they had given him a mission to emotionally manipulate the target until he would lose interest in his wife.

Alec wouldn't say that Ames White had been nicer but he had certainly been softer with a harried edge and desperately in need of someone to talk with.

They had given him Ames' psychological profile and the rest had been easy. The fact that Ames was among the few people who could hold themselves against Alec in a fight had certainly played into Alec's own attraction towards the target.

As predicted their mutual attraction had quickly evolved into sex and stayed there for a long time, which also been predicted as they had tried to reassure Alec during the up-date briefings.

Alec remembered very well the day that had changed. Mainly because they had done nothing else but talk. Something had brought down Ames' very effective walls on that day and he had cracked. He had told Alec about his father 'breaking everything I was ever taught and being disappointed when I didn't follow him' with anger and disappointment, about his brother 'He's insane, really, clinically insane that's why they're usually killed but he's my little brother. He's the only thing my father did wrong that was right.' with a sad, nostalgic smile, about his baby son 'It's frightening how much love you can feel for one single person' with so much open affection that it made Alec envious and about his wife in a voice as if he had never really said it out loud before:

'I love her, Alec. She's naive and annoying sometimes and too curious for her own good and I shouldn't but I love her.' He had touched Alec's face at this point and kissed him before saying:

'Sorry, but I can't leave her.'

After this report, they had terminated the mission and faked his death before he could meet Ames again.

Alec had always wondered why Ames hadn't killed him instantly in that warehouse, especially in the light of developments.

On the other hand he couldn't have explained why he had never disclosed all the useful information he had on Ames White either.

Ames White wasn't a man of principles. Not that the Brotherhood or post-Pulse America encouraged principles but especially the Familiars had some and Ames had crossed every single one of them. He had never lost a single night's sleep over using both the NSA and the Brotherhood for his own purposes either. The Familiars of course would attribute that to the 'bad blood' of his traitorous father.

Ames didn't like most people. They were mostly dumb and tools or sometimes annoying.

A completely different matter were the people he loved, which he could count on one hand and for which he would, and had, go through hell.

His father wasn't on that list. He had left when Ames had been ten and CJ four, left them in an environment increasingly hostile to CJ's existence with every passing day. For years and years on end Ames had heard about the atrocities his father committed against their belief. The tip on an iceberg filled with Ames own hate against his father for leaving them and the things he had had to do to keep CJ safe.

He had changed his and his brother's name as soon as he had become eighteen, if only to keep people from harping on them as soon as they told their names.

Then CJ's illness had reared its ugly head and had made everything worse and his attempts to keep his brother alive even more desperate. Ames had done literally everything to rise in the ranks, even hurt CJ, so that he had enough influence within the Familiars to keep CJ from being killed as an abomination.

Of course, just when he had provided that CJ was seen by his superiors as a childhood sentimentality, he had met Wendy and ruined years of his own work for her.

She was beautiful and funny, from a good family whose connections helped his career. She was naive and asked too many questions and wanted too many answers and was just generally annoying sometimes, but he was absolutely infatuated with her. At one point he had considered telling her everything but Wendy was to comfortable in her mindset and wouldn't have understood the belief and ideals of a Familiar.

Also, if something should happen to him which wasn't unlikely in his line of work, she would take care of Ray because she loved him as much as he did.

So he used his influence within the Familiars to protect CJ and his position in the NSA to keep them away from Wendy, too.

Then his father's creatures escaped from their cage and the time had come for Ames to prove himself for once and for all. After all these things were 'our brothers and sisters, Ames' as CJ had pointed out in one of his more lucid moments, but Ames already three people to protect, among them his brother, and he would have happily killed every single of his father's monsters to keep them safe.

Well, four persons actually but Jake didn't count because Jake had been already dead. Killed in an accident with a petrol tank.

Until Ames had found himself face to face with Alec and realized that 'Jake' had never existed and he had been played all along.

To face that the man he had loved was one of his father's killer creatures had hurt like hell.

And as if to prove his ineffectualness, he hadn't killed Alec. Worse, it became soon clear to him, if luckily not to anyone else, that while he had no qualms about killing his father's monsters, he couldn't kill Alec, not even in the face of the recent development.

It was odd, however, when Ames realized that Alec obviously had never told his fellow mutants about their earlier meeting. They could have easily destroyed him with that kind of information. But then they had kidnapped his son, which was a far crueller action than he had anticipated from 452.

With the Siege of Terminal City solved unsatisfyingly for the Brotherhood and everybody, including the Freaks, going back to their day jobs.

The past year had showed that despite everything he still loved Alec.

All odds were off. _All_ odds.


End file.
